According to the Adidas website, the near-field-communication chip embedded under the logo "is passive" and can only send out information.

The device it interacts with — a mobile phone, for example — "can both send and receive information."

Users who swipe down, activate NFC, and touch the ball with their phone receive "functionalities like exclusive information about the product, Adidas football content, special competitions, and challenges."

And it doesn't store information on how the ball is used — though the tag can be updated to add new features.

Bloomberg asked Adidas whether the chip "could be a vector of a Russian hack," and Adidas refused to comment.

On its website, however, Adidas says it is "not possible to delete or rewrite the encoded parameters" of the NFC tag.